Yesterday, I spent the day at the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Convention in Huron, SD. Every year, my South Dakota colleagues get together to discuss the big issues facing the beef industry today. More than that, my South Dakota friends get together every year to rekindle old friendships and enjoy each other’s company away from the daily grind of cattle feeding chores.
Taking it all in, I didn’t realize how much I learned throughout the day until I arrived at home. The day kicked off with Troy and Stacy Hadrick giving a presentation about animal rights activists and how it’s time to stand up and speak out, before our industry changes forever. These Advocates for Agriculture truly did an outstanding job of setting the tone for the rest of the day, and I could see the fire they lit in the eyes of the ranchers around me. I know they make a difference.
Another speaker that stuck out throughout the convention was Gregg Doud, NCBA’s Chief Economist from Washington D.C. Although I was a little weary when he told the luncheon crowd that he had 118 slides to go through, Doud blew me away with his passion, his foresight into the future of the industry and his uncanny knack to make squiggles on a ton of charts make sense to everyone in the room. He taught me the meaning of BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China—the four countries that are taking the global marketplace by storm. He explained the economic turmoils of more than just the beef industry; Doud dived into how the poultry, pork, commodity and even crude oil markets were affecting beef prices. I think the entire crowd could have listened to him speak all day. I know that Gregg will play an influential part in the future of our industry.
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Sometimes I come across articles about the agricultural industry that I instantly scoff at, and I wonder how anyone in the world would believe them as true. You know what I’m talking about…the articles blaming cows for pollution and meat eating as a main cause for cancer. It’s really disappointing to read these articles and know that we are losing beef customers as a result of it.
I read an article in the Virginia Tech Collegiate Times online edition that examined the health effects of eating animal products as described in “The Food Revolution” by John Robbins. According to the article, “Red meat causes 40 out of every 100 deaths from cancer. An 11,000-person, 12-year study published in the British Medical Journal concludes that there is a ‘roughly 40-percent reduction in mortality from cancer in vegetarians and fish eaters compared with (non-fish) meat eaters.”
You can read the entire story here, Column: Veganism not required for living a long, happy life. Although the article doesn’t require a life of veganism for a healthy life, it certainly frowns upon consuming milk and meat products.
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Currently, I’m enrolled in a course at SDSU called International Media. Over the duration of a semester, my peers and I have monitored news across the globe, paying specific attention to what the rest of the world has to say about the U.S. election, the economic crisis and even our Hollywood stars and national sports teams. It seems the world is constantly watching the United States, weighing our moves and digesting the rippling effect those moves have on their respective homelands. With the South Korean beef export market open once again to accept U.S. beef and with current negotiations with Taiwan’s restrictions of U.S. beef, it’s time cattlemen start paying attention to what’s going on in the global marketplace, as well.
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The long Thanksgiving weekend is over, and it’s back to school for me. The four-day break was jam-packed. We worked on breaking the show calves and had the vet come out to bang’s tag all of the replacement heifers. In between, we had an early Christmas, Thanksgiving dinner and Black Friday shopping. On each of these occasions, I was surrounded by my closest family members, and everytime we gathered ’round the table, the topic was the same…
What is this “cow tax” all about? And, what are we going to do about it?
Last week, I posted a blog entry on this subject, and I received a flood of feedback from worried producers. I thank you for your questions, concerns and open discussion. There is nothing better than hearing from all of you and digesting your thoughts on this hot button topic. So now what? We are past the talking. What are we going to do about the EPA’s proposed cow tax? I don’t know about you, but I would rather be proactive on this one than take a backseat and react later.
I want to hear from you. Hop on your soapbox, grab the mike and type away. The stage is yours; I’ll be listening and praying for a positive solution. I’m looking forward to your input. Let’s not sit by and watch something this destructive happen to our industry. I think the negative impact of Proposition 2 will leave a big enough mark for one year.
It’s easy to get into the daily grind of things in the frenzy of getting things accomplished. Our list of things to do is usually chuck full of items that can’t be put off.
1. Grind feed
2. Fix fence
3. Do laundry
4. Buy groceries
5. Sell bulls
6. Buy Christmas presents
7. Pay the bills
8. Worry about HSUS
9. Write a letter to Congress about EPA’s Proposed Cow Tax
10. Get the AI tank filled
11. Clean the barn
It seems this list is never ending and always loaded to the max with the many responsibilities and duties that rule our life. In this holiday season, the most important thing to add to your to-do list is to make time for family and friends, enjoy life’s simple pleasures and give thanks for your many blessings. It’s really simple; come on, I will show you how it’s done.
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Today’s headline is about EPA’s desire to tax ranchers for livestock emissions. This proposed “cow tax” will have a colossal impact on the agricultural industry. I urge you to read more on this issue, and read the following press release sent out by NCBA’s Policy Affiliate Relations Manager, Elizabeth Bostdorff.
CALL TO ACTION: URGE EPA to NOT REGULATE GREENHOUSE GASES
Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is collecting comments on an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding regulating Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act.
WE NEED YOUR HELP to tell the EPA NOT to regulate Greenhouse Gases under the Clean Air Act since such regulation would be economically devastating to the entire U.S. economy, including the cattle industry.
There are two forms of the comments that you can submit to the EPA against this rule. See the Call to Action site at NCBA to access these forms. You can also submit your comments via email. Just send them to: a-and-rDocket@epa.gov and be sure to reference Docket ID# EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0318 in the subject line.
PLEASE help us fight against regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act by sending a letter TODAY!
Deadline for letters is Friday, November 28th.
The year was 1997. Christmas was right around the corner, and I was ten years old. I was in the house with my mom and two sisters. As tradition, we would spend a whole weekend decorating the house for the holiday season. We decked out the tree, wrapped garland around the railings, hung lights on the porch, and wrapped gifts for family and friends. Mom gave all of us girls jobs to keep us busy decorating while she made holiday treats. Later, we would all gather in the kitchen to decorate sugar cookies.
There was only one damper on this holiday spirit—Dad always knocked on the door needing chore help, and I was usually the prime target. That meant putting the last of the decorations on hold, donning double socks, snow pants, coat, warm boots, mittens, and a hat and heading outside to help my dad. Together, we would feed hay, grind feed, check water tanks, and take care of the calves before the next big snow hit.
In 1997, a big snow certainly did hit the state of South Dakota. This winter is so infamous in our state’s history that people still wear baseball caps with the slogan, “I survived the Blizzard of ‘97”. For my family, we were snowed in our house for seven days. As a result, my sisters and I had to skip a full week of school. Most kids would have rejoiced at the thought of missing out on so much school to play in the snow, but my reality was much different than snow angels and snowball fights.
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The lights shone on the modest cowboy. His fitted black Wrangler jeans revealed legs, lean and agile. His aqua blue pearl button shirt coupled with a tightly tied orange scarf contrasted against the dark of the room. He wore a black cowboy hat atop his head that shaded his eyes and a handlebar mustache veiled his fast talking mouth. In his hand, he gripped a daunting black microphone. The microphone had a job to do: keep up with the talking cowboy and survive the action. The cowboy was a poet, one of the best of his kind. You could tell he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve—he jumped, he rolled, he quipped, he flipped. As he acted out his poems to the crowd, all eyes were fastened on him and laughter erupted from the souls of every cattlemen in the room. You see, the cowboy was Baxter Black, and he was telling our story, the agriculture story.
It was a year from December where I first had the opportunity to listen to Black, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled than to sit in my chair and roll with laughter as Baxter portrayed his adventures as a large animal veterinarian. As an aspiring speaker and writer myself, I knew I had to get an interview with the greatest cowboy poet in the world. Wrangling a cowboy poet isn’t as easy as it seems. This particular cowboy carries no cell phone and he doesn’t use a computer.
How was I possibly going to wrangle this cowboy for an interview with me? After all, I’m just a simple South Dakota farm kid. My love of agriculture started as a young girl where I grew up on a cow-calf operation, raising Limousin seedstock with my family. After a few chance opportunities changed my life, I was hoping to join the ranks of all the great individuals that served the industry as agriculture advocates. I wanted his secrets; I wanted to know all the answers to my many questions. First, I was going to get my interview.
After some persistent chasing, I scheduled an interview with Baxter through his secretary; we agreed to meet for breakfast in our downtown Denver hotel the next morning. As the new day awakened, I nervously waited for the cowboy poet. I was a mere five interviews into budding journalism career, and I was as green as a freshly weaned calf. He greeted me with the tip of his cowboy hat and a respectful bow. In true Southern gentlemen fashion, he pulled out my seat and sat across from me. I felt his eyes pore into me, sizing me up. He was probably wondering what in the world some college kid from South Dakota wanted with him.
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Every morning, I open my laptop and I start sorting through the day’s top news. Not only do I read what’s happening in the beef industry, but I also get the dish from consumers’ view, paying special attention to articles that pertain to food. On a single day, I can see all kinds of headlines relating to beef. It seems the agriculture industry is blamed for everything from epidemic obesity to greenhouse gasses. In an effort to “go green,” many consumers see eating meat as an outdated trend, something not eco-friendly enough to grace their dinner tables.
In fact, yesterday I even received this comment on my blog post about Proposition 2, “Factory farms who raise animals for food claim they are the good guys feeding the hungry people. But the fact is that animal agribusiness is devastating to our environment, public health, and animal welfare. If is also a fact that if we replaced animals raised for food with crops, we could feed every starving person on earth. Congrats to HSUS!”
To tell you the truth, sometimes I just get plum burnt out from these statements and my efforts to respond with commentary and letters to the editors. Sometimes I just want to turn my head and pretend I never saw anything worth correcting. Then, I feel guilty, and I respond, guiding the Internet readers to beef-friendly websites where they can learn more about the foods they eat. It only takes a few minutes to educate a consumer, and it’s a practice everyone in the beef industry should pick up. We should never tire of correcting misguided media outlets and consumers, don’t you agree?
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It’s crunch time at South Dakota State University, as students are in a frenzy with last minute projects, tests and activity events before finals week and the end of the semester. For me, that means I’m running from one thing to the next, busy as ever and waiting for things to slow down. As soon as homework slows down, it’s another writing assignment to do, a load of work to do on the farm, or a list of presents to buy before Christmas. Things are moving fast in the beef industry these days, too. Cattlemen are worried about earning high prices for their sale cattle, keeping the feeder calves healthy, wondering about the first snowstorm and trying to prepare the ranch for winter.
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